Life Art Water: LAW 83: Sunday Suppers, springtime and leftovers

Last night's dinner proved, once again, that leftovers can not only be thrifty and good for you, but truly delicious. Last Sunday we shared a slow grilled whole Shad with our friends Chris and Shannon. Shad is one of the truly under appreciated, under utilized fish found on the East Coast. It is the largest member of the Herring family, usually weighing in at about four pounds. It's not that people here don't eat Shad, they do, well they eat the roe, dismissing the fish itself as 'too boney'. Hey, wake up people, whole crab is a pain in the you know what to pick and eat, but we do it. Shad is an early spring treat, they run into the fresh water to spawn, the arrival of those pretty rose pink roe sets at the fish market are a sure sign of warm weather to come.

Yes, the bones make the Shad dining experience a messy one, i have read that Shad is the boniest fish in the world, i'm not sure if that is true, but….

daybreak from the bow

Slow baked, grilled or smoked, and i do mean upwards of five hours here the whole fish will fillet easily. The backbone will slide right out and the pin bones, if not really melted away to nothing are completely edible. The method is, wrap the whole, clean fish in a lightly oiled foil package, cut three or more slits in the skin, squeeze a lemon over it, rub salt, pepper and thyme all over, stuff it with sliced onions, lay it on a bed of sliced onion and top it off with three or four slices of bacon, seal it up and let it do its thing for about five hours at about 200-250 degrees. When you are ready to eat, carefully slit the foil and drain the very tasty and bountiful juice into a bowl, slice the first fillet off the backbone, sit down and enjoy! The first half of a four pound fish comfortably fed the four of us, along with most of the roe set, grilled asparagus and parmesan potato stacks. Yum yum.

Oh my, this will be great in about 5 hours!

So, the next day i 'picked' the other half of the fish, flaked it and combined it with a little minced onion, cream cheese and assorted herbs. Served with Wasa bread and a quick cucumber pickle it made a lovely light lunch.

And no, we didn't finish it all off then either. last night i made a lovely pasta dish with fresh peas and asparagus, the remainder of the 'Shad pate' thinned out with a little cream, sautéed with a little olive oil, shallot, mushrooms and garlic. just a little crushed red pepper for a little kick and a dash of fish sauce for a little more umami, move over Alfredo!